401 Bomb Group "Year Book"

[RKidd]

New guy here, really like what I've seen on the Forum. Thought I'd share something you all might have seen before. i was raised by my grandpaents, so i kinda' have a soft spot for the 1930's & '40's.[IMGIMG]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]][/IMG]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

 

[cco23i]

AAAAAH! RK fix your links! I want to see the photos!!

Scott

 

[RKidd]

Crap, they were on there earlier. Sorry.

 

[DannyBoy]

WOAH! Those are wicked cool. Thanks for sharing! Any possibility of getting those pages scanned so they come out a little more high-res?

 

[FinalVestige79]

Wow!!! Thats a Great Yearbook! I love the jacket paintjobs!

 

[RKidd]

Hope this is better

[/IMG]

 

[Hopalong]

I had a painted A-2 jacket from the 401st BG with "Hells Henchmen" on the back of the jacket and with a woman painted on cloth and sewn on the back of the jacket and bombs painted on the front of the jacket but I could never find a picture of the plane. Mike

 

[RKidd]

Don't see a photo linked to that plane in perticular. Alot of the crews and planes are pictured but not named in the caption. "Hell's Angels" and "Hell's Angels Out of Chute 13" were photographed several time, just to name a few. H.A Chute 13 had 100 consecutive missions without a turnback. The "Betty J." was the last original Flying fortress that started combat with the 401. She had 993 hrs flying time. 431 hrs over the Reich. 27 different crews flew her on 59 missions, with 15 engine changes 3 wing changes and 324 battle scars.

 

[RAMC181]

Nice, and it's the first (1946) edition too!
The reprints don't have the squadron patches in colour.

It wouldn't happen to have the original owner's name on the inside front cover at all?

Regarding "Hell's Henchmen", here's a photo from April 1945 that may be of interest:

All the best,
Paul

 

[RKidd]

[/IMG]The original owner was my grandfather Sgt. R.M. Hampton.

 

[zetwal]

Wow!!! Thats a Great Yearbook!

Agreed!

 

[Hopalong]

Paul
I bought the A-2 jacket over 13 years ago in Kelso, Washington from the nephew of the owner of the jacket and he said his uncles name was Cecil Gentemann and that's all the information I ever got. I tried to research the jacket but never really came up with anything. I also was told, weather what I was told is true or not, is that the 401st was a young WW II BG and there wasn't alot of information out about the BG besides the Unit History book which I looked at at our local military museum. Mike

It wouldn't happen to have the original owner's name on the inside front cover at all?

Regarding "Hell's Henchmen", here's a photo from April 1945 that may be of interest:

All the best,
Paul[/QUOTE]

 

[Hopalong]

Here's what the back of my 401st BG "Hell's Henchmen" A-2 jacket looked like that I had displayed in my collection. Mike

[/IMG]

 

[Hopalong]

Here's what the front of my 401st BG "Hell's Henchmen" A-2 Jacket looked like with the bombs that were painted on to show how many missions they had flown. Mike

[/IMG]

 

[RKidd]

AWESOME! Very nice collection in the background as well.

 

[Hopalong]

Thanks for the compliment on my A-2 jacket and my collection and from what I hear the collector who bought the A-2 from the collector I sold the jacket to had the complete "Hell's Henchmen" A-2 rejuvenated with new cuffs, waistband, lining and I think he even had the picture of the woman touched up that's on the back of the A-2.
I've been liquidating my WW II Aviation collection that I collected for 17 years, over 16 years ago, a little at a time to collectors across the country for the last 6 years and I still have more to sell even though I've sold alot. Mike

 

[billgaston]

Been trying to get a copy of that Year Book for a while now!! Very nice thanks for posting.

Go 615th!!